Playahata

Last night, Scott Olsen, a Marine who served two tours in Iraq, was struck in the head by a “nonlethal” projectile fired by the Oakland police. The round fractured his skull, leaving him in critical condition. Olsen had joined with other members of Occupy Oakland to peacefully protest the group’s eviction that morning. When a group gathered to help Olsen after he was hit, a police officer threw a flash bang grenade into the group from a few feet away.

Deeply disturbing video of the incident was captured by a local news crew and provides the clearest evidence yet of the lengths that authorities will go to to stop Occupy protesters from voicing uncomfortable truths about our economy.

Yesterday’s eviction in the predawn hours, and last night’s violence against protesters, are only the latest attempts to silence the voices of those who are speaking up for the 99%. But members of Occupy Oakland, who faced the most brutal crackdown yet, refuse to be intimidated. They’ve called for another peaceful gathering tonight to stand up for their First Amendment rights.

If you’re as horrified by this as we are, please sign this petition to Oakland’s mayor and then share this page with everyone you know.

suffered a stroke last week, E! Online has reported, picking up an announcement made by fellow comic Jim Norton on the Opie And Anthony Show, where O’Neal was a regular guest and occasional co-host. Unfortunately, Norton says it’s uncertain whether O’Neal—who has long talked (and joked) about living with diabetes—will ever fully recover. “We don’t know how he is. We don’t know how he’s going to be,” Norton said. “I didn’t want to do this by myself. I wish we had more news for you.” O’Neal, whose latest stand-up special Elephant In The Room debuted earlier this year, is also known for his guest roles on shows like The Office, Arrested Development, and Chappelle’s Show as well as his hosting duties on VH1’s Web Junk 20, and recently appeared on the Comedy Central Roast Of Charlie Sheen. An email account has been set up via the Opie And Anthony Facebook page for fans looking to send well wishes to him and his family.

Chief of Staff Mark Block talks about Herman Cain’s Presidential Campaign and urges people to act because together we can elect Herman Cain!

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — A McDonald’s cashier jailed for beating two irate customers with a metal rod (click here for video) says he was only trying to defend himself. Rayon McIntosh was arrested Oct. 13 after a wild fight inside a McDonald’s in the Greenwich Village neighborhood in Manhattan. Video recorded by a customer showed two furious women vaulting a counter to attack McIntosh after some sort of dispute.
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Filmed live at Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Pittsburgh by Director Paradise Gray, Jasiri X reconnects with super producer Cynik Lethal to provide a soundtrack for this growing movement that has taken the world by storm. We gonna Occupy!

LYRICS
Verse 1
The Power’s with the people don’t let these cowards deceive you (more…)

The savage killing Thursday of deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi served to underscore the criminal character of the war that has been prosecuted by the US and NATO over the past eight months.

The assassination follows NATO’s more than month-long siege of Sirte, the Libyan coastal city that was Gaddafi’s hometown and a center of his support. The assault on this city of 100,000 left virtually every building smashed, with untold numbers of civilians dead, wounded and stricken by disease, as they were deprived of food, water, medical care and other basic necessities.

Gaddafi was apparently traveling in a convoy of vehicles attempting to break out of the siege after the last bastion of resistance had fallen to the NATO-backed “rebels”. NATO warplanes attacked the convoy at 8:30 a.m. Thursday morning, leaving a number of vehicles in flames and preventing it from moving forward. Then the armed anti-Gaddafi militias moved in for the kill.

The death of Gaddafi appears to have been part of a larger massacre that has reportedly claimed the lives of a number of his top aides, loyalist fighters and his two sons, Mo’tassim and Saif al-Islam.

While details of the killings remain somewhat clouded, photographs and cell phone videos released by the NATO-backed “rebels” clearly show a wounded Gaddafi struggling with his captors and shouting as he is dragged onto the back of a vehicle. His stripped and lifeless body is then shown, drenched in blood. It seems clear that having first been wounded, perhaps in the NATO air strikes, the former Libyan ruler was captured alive and then summarily executed. One photograph shows him with a bullet hole in the head. (more…)

Longtime dictator of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi, has been killed following the capture of his hometown of Sirte.
There were confusing reports of Gaddafi’s capture and death, and questions remained over exactly how he was killed. Arab broadcasters showed graphic images of the balding, goateed Gaddafi – wounded, with a bloodied face and shirt – but alive. Later video showed fighters rolling Gaddafi’s lifeless body over on the pavement, stripped to the waist and a pool of blood under his head.

While he was still alive, the fighters drove him around lying on the hood of a truck, perhaps to parade him in public. One fighter held him down, pressing on his thigh with a pair of shoes in a show of contempt. Standing upright, he is shoved along a Sirte road by fighters who chanted “God is great.” Gaddafi appears to struggle against them, stumbling and shouting as the fighters push him onto the hood of a pickup truck.

“We want him alive. We want him alive,” one man shouted before Gaddafi is dragged away, some fighters pulling his hair, toward an ambulance. Most accounts agreed Gaddafi had been holed up with heavily armed supporters in the last few buildings held by regime loyalists in the Mediterranean coastal town, furiously battling revolutionary fighters. The battle for Sirte has been raging for more than a month.

At one point, a convoy tried to flee and was hit by NATO airstrikes, carried out by French warplanes. France’s Defense Minister Gerard Longuet said the 80-vehicle convoy was carrying Gaddafi and was trying to escape the city. The strikes stopped the convoy but did not destroy it, and then revolutionary fighters moved in on the vehicle carrying Gaddafi. (more…)

Bryant Gumbel: “Stern’s version of what has been going on behind closed doors has of course been disputed, but his efforts were typical of a commissioner who has always seemed eager to be viewed as some kind of modern plantation overseer, treating NBA men as if they were his boys,” Gumbel continued. “It’s part of Stern’s [modus operandi], like his past self-serving edicts on dress code and the questioning of officials. His moves were intended to do little more than show how he’s the one keeping the hired hands in their place.”

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – It was another busy day for Occupy Wall Street protesters who held three marches throughout the city on Tuesday. Demonstrators started their day around 1:30 p.m. at Sotheby’s, joining a rally with union workers involved in a contract dispute with the auction house.

They moved to the Manhattan district attorney’s office Tuesday evening around 5 p.m. to call for an investigation into what they say was an “unprovoked assault” by a police officer last week. The group says activist Felix Rivera-Pitre was seen on a video being punched by an officer when protesters hit the streets after winning the right to stay in Zuccotti Park on Friday.

According to the New York Times, Rivera-Pitre’s lawyer Ronald Kuby said that prosecutors are still investigating the incident. (more…)

Last month, a Time Warner Cable customer service rep died at her desk. After any unexpected death, people searched for answers, explanations, someone to blame. But in this case, there may have actually been something foul afoot. A local news station reports that after a co-worker began giving CPR to 67-year-old Julia Nelson, a supervisor allegedly told her to stop and “get back on the phone and take care of customers.” (more…)

The white population in the U.S. is growing – thanks to Hispanics.

So say the latest census figures, which found a big jump in the number of Hispanics who listed themselves as white on the 2010 census forms.

Those forms specifically stated that Hispanic is an ethnicity, not a race. The result was a sudden six percent increase in white Americans.

“It really surprises me, that is a significant shift,” said Claudio Remeseira, a Columbia University professor and editor of “Hispanic New York: A Sourcebook.” read more

Poster’s Note: Thanks to the turnout of hundreds or supporters including organized labor but also people with no formal organizational ties, and thousands of phone calls to local politicians the Mayor and the private organization has decided to postpone their plans for an eviction, under the guise of a “clean up”. We suspect they simply didn’t want a confrontation and the bad PR at this point, in addition to exposing U.S. hypocrisy on free speech at this point. However, trust they will be back so I wouldn’t quite call it a victory. In the meantime, enjoy and keep organizing! All power, to the people!

Urgent: Mayor Bloomberg is trying to shut down Occupy Wall Street.

Tell Bloomberg: Don’t Foreclose the Occupation.
NEED MASS TURN-OUT, SHOW UP NO LATER THAN 6 A.M.

This is an emergency situation. Please take a minute to read this, and please take action and spread the word far and wide.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is ordering Occupy Wall Street protesters out of Zuccotti Park for a cleanup at sunrise, and his new rules for their return effectively would shut down the occupation, now in its fourth week.

The new rules prohibit tarps, sleeping bags and “lying down”—even as temperatures plummet. They are nothing but a transparent ploy to stop the Occupy Wall Street protesters.

Occupy Wall Street is gaining momentum, with occupation actions now happening in cities across the world.

But last night Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD notified Occupy Wall Street participants about plans to “clean the park”—the site of the Wall Street protests—tomorrow starting at 7am. “Cleaning” was used as a pretext to shut down “Bloombergville” a few months back, and to shut down peaceful occupations elsewhere. (more…)